What bothers you most about NCAA 2005?

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by ADW

I'll preface this by saying that there needs to be another college football game on the market. The development studio that makes NCAA Football treats this game as an after thought. As for the things I don't like here goes. Lack of well thought out offensive and defensive schemes. The team playbooks are basically the same and lack variety from team to team. A team such as USC probably shouldn't have any option in their I formation sets compared to a team like TCU who will occassionaly run the option from the I formation. EA has a bad habit of altering plays and in many cases taking plays out of the game that they feel are "money". Instead of properly implementing a well thought out counter to that play, they'll just take the play out or alter some of the player assignments to make it less effective. A perfecti example of this can be found when trying to attack cover 2 zone. Against a cover 2 zone you want to vertically stretch it by flooding it to one side. You'll send a guy deep, a guy medium, and a guy short. To counter this what EA does is take most of those plays out of the playbooks and they jack up the defensive awareness of the cornerbacks so that they can take away both medium and short passes simultaneously. Coming up to the line of scrimmage and my defensive players start free lancing all over the place. I might have a cover 2 zone called, but my free safety instead being at his proper pre-snap depth, he'll be up on the line of scrimmage just outside of my linebackers. This is very annoying as I've been burned online in a few instances where my opponen simply went deep on that side. My middle linebacker might line up in the weakside B gap which serves no point to the play's execution. Run blocking schemes are virtually non-exixtent. Sure you can run the ball in EA football games, but it generally has nothing to do with well thought out blocking schemes. The reach blocking, trap blocking, and blocking on option plays leaves much to be desired. For the casual gamer these things will go unnoticed, but for someone who's coached football and played football these things are glaring issues. The overall look of the game took a step backwards. The natural grass fields look as if an oil tanker spilled oil on the field. The player uniforms after about two quarters looks as if they've been spray painted with green paint. Cpu defensive linemen being able to consistently push offensive linemen a yard or two into the backfield. It's down right ridiculous with the tightend defensive end matchup. At times my tightend is being pushed three yards deep into the backfield. This is EA's attempt at giving the defense a way of dealing with the option and other outside runs. XBOX version of the game is a bad joke. I plan on attending E3 in May and I'm going to pay close attention to NCAA 2006. I'll be checking over the game with a fine tooth comb and if I don't see any major improvements to that game, I plan on coming down hard on EA in my post E3 review.

As much as I love this series, I must admit that you are on the beam with all your criticisms. The sad thing is that the development team probably knows that they can continue to use cheap shortcuts to address issues instead of fixing the problem, because most of their customer base is oblivious to the fraudulent nature of most of their "fixes".

[GITRDONE]

I bought the game for XBox and then I realized my mistake, so I got it for PS2 only to keep on hating the game. I can't play this against anyone, because it you can not have any game strategy. I used to put drives together on this game by throwing the short pass and stringing plays together, now all it takes is to throw it deep everydown and complete 1 out of every 3 passes for 40 yards a pop.

I'm not wasting my money next year, and MVP Baseball better be glitch free for the most part or I am gone from the last EA game I like.

[ufox1810]

I have to say that there are some of these I agree with, but many I think are chalked up to how different people play the game.

For instance, the deep ball was mentioned. Someone said it is nearly impossible to beat the CPU deep. I find this to be the exact opposite. It may just be the players I have, or the teams I am playing against, or my plays called, or just my general style of play I have developed over the years playing this series. But I have had to limit myself in calling the deep ball because it has become too easy. There are 4-5 plays in my playbook (UF) alone that I can consistantly complete the deep ball with. Down by 5 to FSU with 10 seconds left. I call 1 play and it's an 80 yard TD pass. It may not work all of the time, but if I really want to I could call it over and over again and it will work to get me down the field without going 3 and out.

The part that frustrated me was the dropped passes. Wide open over the middle + 90 rated WR = dropped pass. But then I went back and thought about what my record was on NCAA 2004 and 2003 and 2002, etc. Although it may be frustrating, they have to make this game harder. For those of us that have been playing for years and years it is too easy to go 11-1 or 12-0 consistantly. If a crucial dropped pass or missed blocking assignment makes me actually lose a game then I'm kinda happy as weird as it sounds. I want those 9-3 seasons where I'm fighting for the conference title. Or those 7-5 years occasionally where it's just an all around down year. The game has to be competitive and some of these things that aren't exactly like "real life" football make it so.

So despite some issue in gameplay - that will always be there because it is a game - the part that bothers me is the steps back in the simple stuff. For example, UF has been in every NCAA game dating back to the Genesis days (with the exception of Bill Walsh of course that didn't have real teams if I remember correctly) and every year their uniforms have been correct. Suddenly this year EA decided to make their shoulder numbers orange for some reason. Not really sure why, but they made the change.

Honestly those are the little things that bother me, because the gameplay can get frustrating, but if anything it's stopping me from going 120-0 and that's the last thing I want.

[PlayaHataSupreme]

What bothers me is the fact that the game engine befuddles my defensive players' awareness...... I had one case where I was controlling a SS and the QB threw a deep ball to USC's Fred Davis and my AI CB stopped for half a second so Fred Davis could catch the ball and run all the way for a touchdown. That ain't cool at all......

Also, the wacky simulation engine, way too many upsets and 40-34 games have become the norm and I actually raise my eyebrows when I see a 21-10 game. THAT is a problem too.

They need to delete the sim engine, throw it in the trash, and redo it.

[Cardot]

I am still playing 2004, but I have read that this issue is no different in 2005:
It isn't much harder to complete a 40 pass into triple coverage as it is to hit a wide open receiver 5 yards downfield.

[PlayaHataSupreme]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cardot

I am still playing 2004, but I have read that this issue is no different in 2005: It isn't much harder to complete a 40 pass into triple coverage as it is to hit a wide open receiver 5 yards downfield.

Yep, if your receivers are going to constantly drop short passes, that's a problem. You may as well dial long-distance and as long as you have sick user skills and a half-decent receiver, there's little incentive in setting up the defense with short passes.

I hope they stop the exaggerated number drops on short passes ....... I can set up the defense by getting my run game going, and I can run a pass with my composed WR C. Thorpe, and he'll still drop one over the middle, but I can hit Chauncey Stovall like deep like whoa, especially in 2 player games.....

Also I have one more little thing that gets to me. The kick meter should go slower if I'm not putting as much power on the kick; as it is, there's no incentive in putting less power into the kick, they may as well not even have a kicking power meter.

[ohiost]

1. Running game in all EA games stink. Needs to be more varied with better blocking schemes, along with more running back/tackler interaction. Very limited amount of player interactions/animations really hurts the replayability because of the lack of variety. Need power, speed, and combination of power/speed to be represented properly. Let's see some guys getting dragged for extra yardage, being run over, or getting stung but keeping their balance and continuing to move forward. I want to see something other than two guys colliding and falling to the turf. EA is 4-5 years behind in this area. Even 989 games did this better than EA.

2. Passing game and running game not wide open enough. College football is full of big plays and open field heroics. EA doesn't capture this feeling at all. Not nearly enough broken tackles or people being faked out. No cut back game at all. 90% of time receivers catch ball and are tackled immediately. This is not realistic at all at the college level or Pro. DB's rediculous make up speed contributes to some of this.

3.Screens, Draws, Reverses almost never work properly even when you catch the D in the perfect situation for them to be successful.

4. Teams need to play with more variety. Almost all the teams you play with feel the same. This gives the game a stale feeling after a very short time playing it.

5. Make player ratings mean something. If there is a stud defensive end or tackle make it essential that you keep a back or TE in to help block these guys or risk a sack. This is basic football 101 so it's time stuff like this is implemented.

6. Please do away with guys like Adrian Peterson tiring after 2-3 carries and becoming less effective. Anyone who watches sports will know that stud athletes performance doesn't drop off like EA portrays because of fatigue. I don't know where EA got the idea to fatigue guys so quickly but it's absurd and it needs to stop.

ohiost

[moose1619]

Guys i feel your complaint but I think you need to take a step back and look at your issues again. Take the running game and run blocking schemes. EA does a great job on the counter play and it is one of my favorite run plays, they also do a good job on the zone run block scheme, is there an area of improvement to be made, yes, but they do a good job on this. Also turn your sliders for catching up for you and the CPU and they are cut down dramatically. Also the screen pass blocking is nice. I think it is well executed.

On attacking a 2 deep zone, I love it. Send 4 guys deep on a seam route and you can beat it. Use a pump fake and it is effective. You can wait for your slot back and TE to get pass the LBs and one is usually open. If you pump one way and the DB's bite you can hit one outside guy. Just know that the strenght of the cover 2 zone is horizontal coverage underneath of the D. In cover 3 it is the deep zones. Where is your weaknesswhen atatcking both??? Attack cover 2 by sending guys deep and look to make your throw between 15-30 yards, but send multiple guys deep. Or you can send a guy deep over the middle and short underneath to attack the MLB. Against cover 3 attack all the underneath coverage. My suggestion is to see if the D is open or closed every play. What I mean is, is there a safety in the middle of the field??? If so it is closed, if a safety moves out it is open. This will help you distinguish cover 2, cover 3 or man right off the bat. This shoudl be your first quick read. Where you go with the ball then is up to you. Depending on the play call. My eyes light up if I see the safety vacate the middle and I have a deep post called, especially if they are man.

But i definately feel your complaint and I can't stop playing this game, I have finally gotten army almost competing for the national championship, it has just taken me 5 seasons and a near mist in my last one. I am finally getting opposing teams to run on me more, but not what I would like, but I am seeing more 13-15 carries and sometimes 45-80 yards, for some backs. But I am in the CUSA and there are not many great backs in there this far into the dynasty.